The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1887-04-12
BY Wholesale.
A GREAT GANG BROKEN UP ON THE
PAN HANDLE ROAD.
Simultaneous Arrest Of Several Hundred at DIT
ferent Points -Fifty-six Arrested in Pitts
burg Alone All Train Men.

plete before late this afternoon: and at
that time the officers of the Pan Handle
Railroad will have i'm CUSTODY the most
daring gang of railroad robbers this
country has ever known How many
members belong to it is not known, but
they run up into the hundreds. Their
stealings extended over a period of two
or three years, and the amount stolen
reaches nearly half a million of dollars.
Simultaneous arrests were made along
the line of the Pan Handle Road be-
tween here and Columbus. Ohio. War
rants have been in the hands of
the officers for some time, and the
persons arrested will comprise nearly
the entire force of freight men of the
line. They included conductors, brakes
men. engineers and firemen. The ring
leaders of the gang are outside of the
railroad business; they are known, and
some of them are now believed to be
under arrest. The first arrests were
made about ? O'Clock this morning. the
police surprising eighteen men at their
clearinghouse and taking them at
once to Jail. Further arrests were made
between dark and daylight, when a
party of six men, railroad employees, con-
ductors, brakesmen, firemen and engi-
neers We're behind the bars.
I'm speaking of the arrests prominent
officer of the Pan Handle Road said /:
For three years past the Pan Handle
Road has been systematically robbed
Cars on sidings and cars in moving trains
were broken open and goods stolen, in
cluding every description of merchan-
disc. It is estimated that at least $500,
the company had to pay. In August last
We got a clue and the company deter
mined to push it to the end. Detectives
We're employed, who followed up every
scent, and finally we had information
upon which to proceed. When every
thing was ready we had decided to make
a move all along the line from Columbus
to- Pittsburg, and , O'Clock this morning
was fixed upon to strike the blow. About
eighty warrants were issued for the men
III Il NdIIiiOt ttAA IiOW IldIIN
for other places, but at every point along
the line it will run up in the hundreds
1t is the biggest thing of the kind that
ever happened in Pittsburg, or iO rail-
road matters, in the world, for nothing
like it has ever happened before. l can
not tell who the men are under arrest or
who the ringleaders are. This much
will say, however, we suspect outsiders
of being implicated in the robberies but
know nothing positive.
Among the prisoners is a man named
Baker, against whom there are thirty
eight charges. Early in the morn
ing some months ago, at Sheri-
dams Station, near this city, a
train was stopped for water. An
attack was made on the crew, and in the
fight fireman was shot. He afterwards
died from his injuries. At daybreak it
was found that two cars had been
broken open and their contents stolen.
Baker is accused of firing the shot that
killed that fireman, and this is under
stood to be one of the thirty-eight
charges against HIM.
John H. Hampton, attorney for the
Pennsylvania Company, was seen this
morning in the office of the Detective
Agency, where, amidst a Heterogeneous
collection of plumber, he said These
rObberies have been carried on systemat-
ically for several years. The company
have long been aware that there was leak
ing somewhere. and as early as Septem-
ber. 1886, they quietly commenced inves-
LEGATIONS. Detectives were placed on
trains where the goods could be watched
and the thieves caught. We had already
discovered that the culprits were
employees of the company. In September
there were eighty crews of freight trains
on the Pan Handle Railroad coming
into Pittsburg. OF these. not less than
ssventy-tive were found To be crooked.
\ crew consists of the conductor, a flag
man and two brakemen. In some cases
all the men were involved in Others
only a part. The statement that the
engineers and firemen were mixed up in
the robberies is wrong. Not a single
one is involved. The goods were stolen
the seals were broken, while in Others
hatchets were used to cut a hole in the
end of the car. through which the men
crawled and took what they could.
Then they reported the car in bad con
dition, claiming that the hole had been
made by accident The operations Were
all the result of combinations.
Arrangements were carefully made
and each rascal was assigned to his par
ticular part of the work in much the
same way as hank robbery Is conduct
ed by professional cracksmen- l do not
know that the members of the cOmbina-
nation were oath-bound or anything OF
that kind, but il Is certain that g
thorough understanding existed then
and they acted in concert TO cover each
other. misdOings. The thing which
alarmed us more than anything else was
that they stole large quantities of whisky
and drank il in their houses They
needed vessels To hold their liquor. 81
they stole milk cans and kept
it in them Not daring to keep
whisky openly in the cans
they tore up the flooring and hid il
underneath The men were continually
reported drunk on duty. and the proba-
bility of a disaster was something fear
full TO contemplate. All kinds Of goods
were stolen, including sewing machines,
guns, revolvers, cutlery, silverware,
cigars, clothing, liquors, groceries, furni-
ture, and. in fact, every imaginable arti-